We are considering section 19 of this encyclical to day subjects eternally timeless. Sin and sanctification, subjects we are quiet about and should not be and then cry to the winds, "ah me" at the sickness of a cancered world. Anyone overlooking the discrepancies between the act that ought to be and the nauseating reality of its neglect causing the word ever deeper mire which we so lament with out justification is deplorably blind, a blindness really chosen . Merciless purification, the mortification of the fallen flesh takes many forms and is or should be a daily routine. The salt of the earth will never entirely rot and be decayed. The living members seem hidden and inconspicuous but eventually surface. Imagine these themes recited in the ears of its Nazi audience. What amazing courage to do the recital. I am not even a Catholic but the remarks are universal and were live through at the time of this writing by many of the priestly order in this church.
The Church, whose work lies among men and operates through men, may see her
divine mission obscured by human, too human, combination, persistently growing
and developing like the cockle among the wheat of the Kingdom of God. Those who
know the Savior's words on scandal and the giver of scandals, know, too, the
judgment which the Church and all her sons must pronounce on what was and what
is sin. But if, besides these reprehensible discrepancies be between faith and
life, acts and words, exterior conduct and interior feelings, however numerous
they be, anyone overlooks the overwhelming sum of authentic virtues, of spirit
of sacrifice, fraternal love, heroic efforts of sanctity, he gives evidence of
deplorable blindness and injustice. If later he forgets to apply the standard of
severity, by which he measures the Church he hates, to other organizations in
which he happens to be interested, then his appeal to an offended sense of
purity identifies him with those who, for seeing the mote in their brother's
eye, according to the Savior's incisive words, cannot see the beam in their own.
But however suspicious the intention of those who make it their task, nay their
vile profession, to scrutinize what is human in the Church, and although the
priestly powers conferred by God are independent of the priest's human value, it
yet remains true that at no moment of history, no individual, in no organization
can dispense himself from the duty of loyally examining his conscience, of
mercilessly purifying himself, and energetically renewing himself in spirit and
in action. In Our Encyclical on the priesthood We have urged attention to the
sacred duty of all those who belong to the Church, chiefly the members of the
priestly and religious profession and of the lay apostolate, to square their
faith and their conduct with the claims of the law of God and of the Church. And
today we again repeat with all the insistency We can command: it is not enough
to be a member of the Church of Christ, one needs to be a living member, in
spirit and in truth, i.e., living in the state of grace and in the presence of
God, either in innocence or in sincere repentance. If the Apostle of the
nations, the vase of election, chastised his body and brought it into
subjection: lest perhaps, when he had preached to others, he himself should
become a castaway (1 Cor. ix. 27), could anybody responsible for the extension
of the Kingdom of God claim any other method but personal sanctification? Only
thus can we show to the present generation, and to the critics of the Church
that "the salt of the earth," the leaven of Christianity has not decayed, but is
ready to give the men of today -- prisoners of doubt and error, victims of
indifference, tired of their Faith and straying from God -- the spiritual
renewal they so much need. A Christianity which keeps a grip on itself, refuses
every compromise with the world, takes the commands of God and the Church
seriously, preserves its love of God and of men in all its freshness, such a
Christianity can be, and will be, a model and a guide to a world which is sick
to death and clamors for directions, unless it be condemned to a catastrophe
that would baffle the imagination.
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The children of Romania. Many children retreat and live in the sewers where it is warm. Street teams search for and find these orphans and house and feed them with warm clothes and an education, and search for foster homes for them, good homes. There is an outreach program on the streets,also. Note the many services below the project offers:
